www.ramseymohsen.com - Ramsey Mohsen; web consultant, DJ, video blogger, lifecaster & internet addict.

Video Blog: “Kansas City hockey rink: Independence Event Center”

2009-11-10T07:15:30Z

This month, a new facility opened in the Kansas City area- one that houses the Missouri Mavericks minor league hockey team. The venue is located outside of KC in Harry Truman’s stomping grounds- Independence, Missouri.

Full Disclosure: the staff contacted me directly and invited me to visit. I was not paid or compensated for my coverage and review of the event center.

I snapped a few photos of the facilities and shot a video blog. Both of which you should check out if you’re interested to see what it’s like. Here’s my video blog tour of the building:

Here are quick facts the Independence Event Center:

The building holds 5,800 people, with 25 private suites
The project cost $68 million to build (Sprint Center cost $276 million)
Tickets to a Missouri Mavericks hockey game range from $12 - $35
Free parking
There are actually two ice rinks: 1 in the main building, 1 in the Community Ice building
The building is multi-purpose; it’ll also be used for concerts and other events

During my visit I was a bit surprised in what I found (both in a good and bad way). Here are my thoughts on…

…the building and overall design and architecture:
If you’re driving on i-70 the Independence Event Center is right off the highway. But you could easily miss it if you’re not careful (i did). It sorta looks like a large hotel from the outside. In regards to scale, it’s not even close to the size of the Sprint Center, Kauffman or Arrowhead. Nevertheless, it’s certainly not ugly- it’s just not what you’d expect for a hockey arena. On the inside it’s pretty standard issue, no real surprises (no Dallas Cowboys jumbo-tron if you’re wondering).

…event seating:
General admission has cloth upholstered seats. The suites are leather. Also, there is NO bad seats anywhere in the venue. Seriously. (I even walked around to try to find one) It’s so small that you’ve got a great view from anywhere. I can already tell concerts will be great in this facility.

…there’s community ice skating!
There are two buildings. One is the main event center- and the other is “Community Ice”. Annnnnnd the ice skating is CHEAP! It’s only $8 to skate (includes skate rental). In addition to that, they’ll have lessons for ice skating (adult + kids) and hockey (adult + kids) and birthday party rentals. Furthermore, area high school hockey leagues and teams will be practicing and playing games at the facility.

The “Ramsey Blogger Bottom-Line Review”:
If you caught my Tweet when I was there- it can be summed like this simple as this: fun, cheap and easy. The prices + the experience = great. I know most residents are bummed we didn’t get pro hockey, but this certainly still a great addition to the Kansas City area. Add it to the list of “things-you-take-people-to-if-they-are-from-out-of-town-and-you’re-looking-for-things-to-do” I’m already making plans to both attend a couple games and also check out the ice skating with some friends soon.

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Photos: “Fall in Kansas City”

2009-11-06T04:10:32Z

Fall is absolutely gorgeous in Kansas City. I took these photos walking through the neighborhood on a sunny weekend afternoon. There were a few days in October and November when me and my friends just drove around to check out all the gorgeous trees around the neighborhood.

Video Blog + Photos: “Kanye West Halloween”

2009-11-05T22:43:36Z

The night that Kanye West interrupted Taylor Swift at the VMAs I remember writing down- “note to self: Kanye West at the VMAs would be a great Halloween costume”

If any of you remember seeing my Inspector Gadget costume from last year, you know I really enjoy dressing up for Halloween. Annnnnnnd I’m definitely not one to just throw a costume together last minute. One of the best parts of Halloween is the process of thinking -then- actually constructing (not purchasing) an original costume.

All that said, I snapped some photos at the Halloween party + shot a quick video blog of how the my hair was cut exactly like Kanye’s the night of the VMAs. Most of my friends were pretty shocked I did this- but everyone seemed to enjoy it. If you were wondering, I did also interrupt the DJ playing music at the party at one point of the night …in true Kanye West style

Here’s the video blog “behind the haircut + costume”:

Here’s some photos from the party. You can view the full high-resolution slideshow on flickr.

Photos: “November golf in Kansas City”

2009-11-02T14:42:43Z

These photos are from this weekend- I managed to sneak in a round of golf here in Kansas City. It was a gorgeous 70 degrees (and it’s November!). Golf for me is one of my favorite ways to relax in life. It’s my decompression from the stress of business and the everyday craziness. For the most part, I’m electronics free and unplugged when I play (although I do take my camera + cell phone with me, but use them sparingly).

Both the personal challenge (you vs. the course) plus the time I’m able to spend chatting with good friends makes golf an enjoyable sport and great decompression activity.

What do you do to decompress from the stress of life? How do you unwind and reset on life?

Thanks everyone. I heard you.

2009-10-20T05:53:15Z

I read every blog comment, email, Twitter replies, smoke signals etc. and DM you send me. I can also confidently say- I almost always respond to all of them. A lot of you sent messages yesterday. Some positive and some negative. To all, thank you.

There shouldn’t be any doubt I will continue to stick to what I enjoy doing- which is creating content the way I want to, the way I do it. That doesn’t mean I won’t evolve things or tweak and refine- but you won’t be seeing drastically different things here.
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The missing “critical critique” from my Chiefs experience blog post.

2009-10-20T02:42:25Z

A popular local blogger here in Kansas City, Tony, called me out RE: not being critical in regards to my recent blog post + video blog “Press Access to Chiefs Football”. Good for him. I not only appreciate being called out- I’m going to respond to it directly and update the original blog post. Friends, clients and other bloggers have told me that sometimes I’m not as candid in regards to detailing my experiences. This isn’t intentional. Fact is, I don’t get paid to blog. I don’t get paid for my video blogs either. I do this because I enjoy it. Furthermore, I want to provide my audience the “real” take on things I cover. The stuff you won’t get from traditional media. I certainly am not out there to just make everything seem “happy go lucky”. I discipline myself to post quality content in a perspective that’s real- not influenced by anything other than what my opinion is.

If this means I need to up my game in regards to injecting more critical opinions (good or bad), then I need to do it. I’ve been trying to do this more and more- but it’s not to the level I want it to be. Friends, clients, bloggers and Tony- consider your critiques of my blogging officially heard and action is being taken from here forward.

That said, here is additional information on my experience with the Chiefs I should have originally published with the initial blog post (which will be updated):

Arrowhead certainly is in the mix of being renovated. That said, the facilities are certainly not high-end or very nice for that matter. The press box has a GREAT view of the field, but it was shocking to see how outdated things were for an organization like the Kansas City Chiefs.

I was initially really excited to meet Jason Whitlock. Let me stress the word “initially”. First, let me acknowledge that I admire his successes and his ability to get attention with his columns he writes for the Kansas City Star and Fox Sports. But I certainly don’t always agree with everything he writes- BUT I do think he’s good at what he does. My expectations when I pictured Jason Whitlock is that he would be like ESPN’s Stuart Scott- someone with a vibrant upbeat personality who is quick on his feet and provides insightful intellectual commentary. I was wrong. From my observations, Jason Whitlock walks around the press box with arrogance. People had to approach him and he’s hailed as the “cool kid” among his press peers (or at least it appeared that way). When I introduced myself to Jason, I simply asked if he’d be willing to do a video interview during half-time, which he was actually quite receptive and open to. When I asked about his thoughts before halftime- he commented something along the lines of, “the Chiefs will screw this up somehow.” (which given their record, it’d be hard to argue they wouldn’t, and they certainly did by games end). All in all- for me it was a lot of high expectations with a disappointing ending in regards to meeting Jason. The takeaway for me is just because you can write well- it might not necessarily mean you’re an interesting or engaging person in real life.

When I was there, it angered me observing the waste of paper that was used to print “stats” at the end of each quarter. These are handed out to every member of the press- it’s a sheet that details player and team information. This is 2009 and it would make much more sense for the environment to have a website exclusive to the press or plasma screens to project that information. Furthermore, I observed that most of members of the press threw the paper away without even looking at it.

While it’s great the Chiefs do have objectives and are engaged with social media- they are certainly in the infancy or adolescence stage of understanding how to leverage it to their full advantage. They are trying to congregate the Chiefs community to their website- this means just getting traffic to their site. However, what they have working against them is the painful obvious; when you have a struggling team with a losing record- it is difficult to keep fans excited or positive about the Chiefs. Which means- traffic their website suffers. Sure responding to chat comments during the game, providing correct credible/verified information to fans and engaging on Twitter with fans seems to be the right strategy …but one could argue that’s just fundamentals when it comes to engagement and presence online the Chiefs should have. It’s the first of many steps the Chiefs website team has left to go in regards to their presence online.

Throughout the game everyone in the press box experienced connectivity and internet speed issues. You would assume the press would need reliable and fast internet bandwidth since time and connectivity is of the essence for the press. However, this certainly wasn’t the case. It was sorta frustrating even for me who was just updating on Twitter and Facebook.

Sitting the press box was interesting and certainly a perspective I’ve never seen. However, I can’t say it was super exciting. Interesting yes- but not thrilling. The fact is, the press is there to get down to business (as they should be). I was excited at the opportunity and enjoyed it.

All of these comments are my personal opinion. For the most part they’re fairly detailed and perhaps overly critical. However, it’s the truth and real perspective from my point of view. The acceptance of the Chiefs letting me attend the game with press access is noteworthy and telling of their willingness to let a blogger provide a candid view of what it’s actually like behind the scenes. I do want to apologize to my readers for not including this insight in my original blog post- but consider this my ‘make good’ action that has immediate implications of the types of critiques you’ll be seeing in blog posts to come in the future. Everyone’s continued feedback via emails and comments is the only way I’ve been able to evolve as a blogger- for better or worse. Thank you.
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Video Blog: “Press Access to Chiefs Football”

2009-10-20T04:11:05Z

The Kansas City Chiefs football team called me and asked if I would be interested receiving press access to an NFL game. To which I eloquently said, “Uhhhh- yes, I’m interested.” (duh!) I was stoked at the opportunity- and the Chiefs gave me full press access with free reign to capture whatever I deemed worthy during my experience to broadcast to the Internets. I got to sit in the press box, interview members of the press, attend the post game conference and even go into the locker rooms! Put simply, the experience was awesome.

Full Disclosure: The Chiefs provided me free access /tickets. I was not paid for my time or for the content I produced and published.

With my press access, I decided the angle I wanted to share was the “inside” experience of an NFL football game from the “press” perspective. It’s certainly something not everyone gets to see or experience.

Here’s the video blog I put together of my experience:

(It’s interesting to think about the idea of asking bloggers to come capture, document and broadcast content. It’s a great tactic for embracing influencers or your super-fans who already are creating content and have a community. Furthermore, the outside perspective gives a fresh new angle.)

If you follow me on Twitter- you might have noticed, I live Tweet’ed during the game to provide anyone who was interested the ability to ask direct questions to me or the Chiefs. For this blog post- I’ve weaved a few of my live Tweets and will elaborate on them.

The first thing I noticed was the amount of conversation and chatter that goes on in the press box. ESPN, USA-Today, local morning TV shows- they’re all packed into this one room. When key plays happen like fumbles, touchdowns or sacks- the room echos loudly with confirmations of the players names (who made the play) or the yardage # gained. What I find interesting is the larger implication of all this yelling- these people of the press are the ones who disseminate out the information to websites, TV channels and other outlets as the mothership “source” of data. They punch in the numbers on their laptops. And it’s interesting to think about the effects that ripple down and start in just this one room. Imagine if you could map the pyramid of all the communication connections the press box touches. Something else that’s interesting- when you are in the press, you’re instructed to refrain from cheering on either team outloud.

Arrowhead certainly is in the mix of being renovated. That said, the facilities are certainly not high-end or very nice for that matter. The press box has a GREAT view of the field, but it was shocking to see how outdated things were for an organization like the Kansas City Chiefs. Throughout the game everyone in the press box experienced connectivity and internet speed issues. You would assume the press would need reliable and fast internet bandwidth since time and connectivity is of the essence for the press. However, this certainly wasn’t the case. It was sorta frustrating even for me who was just updating on Twitter and Facebook.

The Chiefs had two members from the web team dedicated to updating www.kcchiefs.com. Lance Brown and Josh Looney- who were both simultaneously watching the game and monitoring Twitter and the website conversations as they happened. I asked them what their objectives were, they shared their current goals in using social media:

Create and/or engage a community and stoke them. Prior to the recent update to kcchiefs.com, conversations happened in several forums. The goal is to both embrace the fans and unite the fan community in one place, the KC Chiefs website.
Provide accurate exclusive information. There’s unique access to data and information that is credible that the Chiefs web team can provide. Furthermore, the ability for the fans to interact and ask specific questions is something that can’t be done when watching it on TV or sitting in the stands.

While it’s great the Chiefs do have objectives and are engaged with social media- they are certainly in the infancy or adolescence stage of understanding how to leverage it to their full advantage. They are trying to congregate the Chiefs community to their website- this means just getting traffic to their site. However, what they have working against them is the painful obvious; when you have a struggling team with a losing record- it is difficult to keep fans excited or positive about the Chiefs. Which means- traffic their website suffers. Sure responding to chat comments during the game, providing correct credible/verified information to fans and engaging on Twitter with fans seems to be the right strategy …but one could argue that’s just fundamentals when it comes to engagement and presence online the Chiefs should have. It’s the first of many steps the Chiefs website team has left to go in regards to their presence online.

I was also excited that I was able to finally meet and talk to someone here in Kansas City and on the national scale is recognized as a great columnist writer, Jason Whitlock. Here’s a couple Tweets RE: Jason

I was initially really excited to meet Jason Whitlock. Let me stress the word “initially”. First, let me acknowledge that I admire his successes and his ability to get attention with his columns he writes for the Kansas City Star and Fox Sports. But I certainly don’t always agree with everything he writes- BUT I do think he’s good at what he does. My expectations when I pictured Jason Whitlock is that he would be like ESPN’s Stuart Scott- someone with a vibrant upbeat personality who is quick on his feet and provides insightful intellectual commentary. I was wrong. From my observations, Jason Whitlock walks around the press box with arrogance. People had to approach him and he’s hailed as the “cool kid” among his press peers (or at least it appeared that way). When I introduced myself to Jason, I simply asked if he’d be willing to do a video interview during half-time, which he was actually quite receptive and open to. When I asked about his thoughts before halftime- he commented something along the lines of, “the Chiefs will screw this up somehow.” (which given their record, it’d be hard to argue they wouldn’t, and they certainly did by games end). All in all- for me it was a lot of high expectations with a disappointing ending in regards to meeting Jason. The takeaway for me is just because you can write well- it might not necessarily mean you’re an interesting or engaging person in real life.

While I was shooting video blog clips at the game, Lance (from kcchiefs.com) noted that some of the aspects I was capturing he’s never thought twice being something of interest to fans. He realized that since he’s been doing this job for a while- it’s easy to miss valuable “behind the scenes” content that might be of interest with fans.

When I was there, it angered me observing the waste of paper that was used to print “stats” at the end of each quarter. These are handed out to every member of the press- it’s a sheet that details player and team information. This is 2009 and it would make much more sense for the environment to have a website exclusive to the press or plasma screens to project that information. Furthermore, I observed that most of members of the press threw the paper away without even looking at it.

All in all, the entire experience was great. I remember thinking to myself when I was exploring the locker room- a blogger getting this type of access is pretty darn cool! The acceptance of the Chiefs letting me attend the game with press access is noteworthy and telling of their willingness to let a blogger provide a candid view of what it’s actually like behind the scenes. I’ve blogged about it before- bloggers and press can both exist- but it should be a partnership, not fighting against each other. Thanks again to the Chiefs- I’m always stoked to see any organization who understand the right way to tap and engage with bloggers.
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Video Blog: “4 Questions for Mitch Joel”

2009-10-12T05:36:55Z

There are a handful of people in the online space that I follow and respect almost everything they publish online. Recently, I had a chance to not only video blog but also have dinner with one of those people, Mitch Joel. Furthermore, he’s actually a pretty laid back and funny guy.

Disclaimer: Shane Adams contacted me from Cerner and provided me free access to the 2009 Cerner Health Conference, in which Mitch was the keynote. I was not paid to do this blog post or video blog.

Mitch Joel is the President of Twist Image, a marketing and communications agency. He also runs blog and podcast that I really enjoy following regularly. I had a chance to ask Mitch 4 questions in regards to social media + business + marketing. Check out his responses in the video blog.

Video Blog: “Misha danced with Michael Jackson”

2009-10-18T20:58:54Z

Something you might not know about me, is back in college I was really into theater. While I didn’t major in performance or theater for college- it’s always been something I enjoyed doing.

Fast forward to last night when an old theater friend called me and said, “I’m going to drag you to rehearsal tonight so you can meet someone super famous that’s in town”. While the super-famous part is arguable I enjoyed meeting Misha Gabriel and seeing how he works when it comes to dance and choreography.

Did you watch the MJ tribute dance on the MTV VMA’s recently? He choreographed it. Have you seen the FutureSex/LoveShow tour on HBO by Justin Timberlake? He choreographed that too. Misha is a big deal. Recently, he was a backup dancer for Michael Jackson’s tour “This is It” (obviously he’s in transition now). He’s danced for/or choreographed routines for Janet Jackson, Justin Timberlake, Beyonce, Chris Brown …the A-list goes on and on.

And he’s only 22-years-old. Seeing this what he can do is pretty incredible.

Check out the video blog for a look at his dancing skills- and stay through to the end to hear him talk about “the day he found out Michael Jackson was dead”. It’s interesting to hear from someone who worked with and was friends with him.

“Augmented Reality” is cool, but is it practical?

2009-09-21T14:50:09Z

If you’re plugged into the tech industry blogs- recently several companies are releasing “augmented reality” preview video clips. The lamence translation of augmented reality is: it provides detailed information on what you are physically pointing your camera phone “at” in real-time. When you watch the demo videos of how the technology “could” work, it certainly is enough to get the average geek excited. Take a look at the example below.

Cool huh? It’s a great concept. However, I’d like to play devils advocate + the realist perspective: Will people really want to OR remember to breakout out their cell phones and point them at stuff? I can’t help but think- while augmented reality could provide valuable data in a very unique way, from a practical standpoint, will the mainstream really use their phones to do this? Think of all the research studies regarding camera phone usage and how low the numbers are. How often do you use your camera phone?

That said, there seems to be a bigger shift needed here more than the development of the technology itself that is required first. When this technology is introduced- the socialization of how to use this technology I think will be a big hurdle that can’t be overlooked. It’s not at all impossible, but I think it’s going to be harder for the adoption of use of this technology than people think …just quick food for thought about a great technology that is certainly still in it’s infancy. It’ll be fun to track where and how fast this technology develops.

Video Blog: “Brian Solis interview RE: social media”

2009-09-18T06:50:08Z

This week, I attended a presentation given by Brian Solis, a thought leader in the social media space (principal at FutureWorks). While his presentation was introduced as “an updated look at trends and ethics within the PR profession”, a large portion of his presentation focused on the ability to find niche influencers online and “inspire action and measure it”. It was interesting seeing some of his data, considering he’s in the agency trenches doing social media for major brands and not just a “talking head” in the industry.

After the presentation, we had a chance to talk- and I whipped out my flip cam and asked him to share his thoughts RE: social media and PR. He also provided some teaser information about the subject matter of his next book- which from the way he speaks about it, it should shake things up for some companies and analysts. Check out the full video blog interview on my YouTube channel (thanks to the Greater Kansas City PRSA for organizing a great event).

1 question that sparked a moment of fruition.

2009-09-16T05:51:00Z

Almost 1 year today, a friend shared with me a quote that literally changed my life:

“Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn’t do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover.”
- Mark Twain

The philosophy and motivation that is encapsulated in this quote is truly what I believe life is all about. That said, the photo you see below is myself and a friend of mine, Morgan. Recently, she had asked if I would donate my photography services to take photos at a 5k benefit race (supports brain cancer, www.headforthecure.org). The mere action of asking me to take photos prompted several thoughts in my head- much deeper than the sterile face value of just the simple one question.

Let me explain. Two years ago, the idea of “photography” was just a shelved hobby that seemed to be far from reality. It was “wish list” hobby- that required me to dedicate time I didn’t have. However, several things all happened in a short amount of time that made me realize I want the most out of life and am looking to spend my time where it makes the most impact. Mark Twain’s quote cites “Explore. Dream. Discover.” which was a motto I instantly adopted then and took off running with it. So I quickly figured out how to finance and purchase the camera and became as resourceful as I could in regards to learning as much as I could about photography (I’m an amateur at best, but I’m improving). I practiced, practiced, practiced (still am) and quickly realized how much I loved the challenge and joys of photography.

All that said- when my friend Morgan had asked me to take photos, it was a “come to fruition” moment that I’m proud of. Two years ago I had set forth personal goals and now have accomplished many of them, one of them being taking up photography as a hobby. Furthermore, taking the time to help others is now both an addiction and something I personally enjoy- and it provides me with a rich sense of fulfillment knowing I’m truly helping those in need (e.g. www.kcsweaterparty.com). It was an indirect compliment that I had matured my photography skills far enough along that Morgan asked for my services- and it’s even more fulfilling that I can take my new found hobby + skill and use it for good to help others.

So now I’ll turn this around to ask you- do you have your inspiration? Are you actively acting upon these and moving forward with your goals? I hope your answer is yes.

I’m excited to be here.

You should be too. Now you get out there. Explore. Dream. Discover.
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Photos: “Summer @ the Lake”

2009-09-20T04:54:22Z

I like taking photos. Anytime I can “sneak” some free practice in with my friends- I devour the opportunity. Recently, we took a big group trip to Lake of the Ozarks for the weekend and I brought my 40D Canon along to document the trip. I continue to be captivated with people portraits. Perhaps it’s the chase I’m obsessed with- the challenge of getting that split-second facial expression, all while framing up the right shot. Take a look at my favorites below- and don’t miss the full 165 photo high-resolution slideshow on flickr enjoy!

How much social media presence is too much?

2009-09-15T05:22:14Z

I’ve often been asked the question, is it possible to have too much of a presence when using social media? Recently, I noticed this same question on a LinkedIn group discussion so I thought I’d share my take here on my blog.

The answer to this question requires you to take a step back and understand first WHY should you have a presence in the first place. You first need to be able to answer simple questions like; Why should we be on Facebook? Why should we have a company blog and who will care?

It’s important to identify a relevant need (the “why”), then take the proper steps to set objectives, understand your audience, devise a strategy and execute tactics (which is simple to say, but hard to do right). However, when you know all that, then the answer to “how often” you should physically post content will reveal itself.

Having a profile on every social network that exists on the Internet is not the right strategy. You must first truly understanding your customers / clients behavior and where they are online. This can and should be done through as many measurable activities as possible (pending budget constraints, of course). Some examples I would suggest are: focus groups, polls, surveys, social media monitoring software, email marketing analysis, web analytics analysis, SEO analysis and direct competitor analysis. When this data is combined and analyzed, you will then have a more complete technographic assessment of your audience to help inform your decision.

If you understand why you’re here in the first place and what the landscape of “where YOUR fish are” is- then a well constructed strategy should outline the quantity of how much and where (tools) you should post to achieve the objectives you have (that’s the hard part). Furthermore, social media monitoring tools, comments and feedback from your users should help you understand the frequency that’s acceptable to post and what your audience responds to. Personally, I find myself frequently tweaking + testing my content and interactions to get things just right.

“How much social media presence is too much?” <– at first glance, it seems like a simple question- but it requires some prerequisites to be answered before you can answer this question correctly.

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Video Blog: “Tour of Missouri” bike race

2009-09-14T06:30:08Z

Each year- the Tour of Missouri bike race comes through Kansas City. I’m not a huge fan of professional cycling, but I was intrigued when I found out that the majority of the riders from this years Tour de France (except for Lance Armstrong) were in this race. I have never seen a bike race before- so myself and a couple friends decided to check out the race.

What’s great about this year’s race, was the course wasn’t just routed through in Kansas City- the ENTIRE race was a closed circuit within Kansas City. That said, it was fun to move to different areas on the course to get a different view of the bikers each time they came through.

In my opinion, bike races aren’t really that exciting live, but it was a fun experience- especially seeing world class athletes race through the streets of Kansas City. I took photos with my camera which you can view the slideshow on flickr or check out my video blog for my perspective of what it was like to be there.

Photos: “Tour of Missouri”

2009-09-14T06:28:49Z

Here’s 3 favorite photos I took with my Canon 40D at the Tour of Missouri bike race here in Kansas City. You can see the full slideshow of photos on my flick account.

1 example of a company who “gets it”.

2009-08-31T05:46:18Z

I’m in the business of consulting and strategy. That said, I’m quick to give props to other companies that “get it” and have executed things well. Through super-magical-powers of ambient intimacy, my eye was drawn to an image that popped into my Facebook newsfeed today from my friend Amber. It was one of those moments where I find myself smirking thinking to myself, “This is great- and it’s well executed.”

This print AD is simple- concise- timely, relevant and more importantly is aligned with the Levi’s Go Forth cause marketing effort (I was compelled to read more online after seeing this AD). Kudos to the team who executed this, job well done.

Video Blog: “Kansas City Air Show ‘09″

2009-08-27T03:55:13Z

This past weekend was the annual Kansas City Downtown Air Show and I vblogged it (full disclosure: they hooked me up with free press access again!).

Overall, last year’s show was better (last year’s vblog here), but there were some highlights. I had a chance to interview pilots who fly the A-10 “Warthog” and the Apache helicopter. I snapped some pretty sweet photos too. The Harrier “jump” jet was cool- something I personally had never seen first-hand +easily the loudest jet I’ve ever heard. The other highlight of the show was the F-16, it’s speed and nimble ability to perform tricks was incredible to watch. Check out the full video blog on YouTube (below).

PS: I’ve been editing my video blogs with my new Mac! (that’s right, I made the switch). While I’m still a PC fan- I can confidently say my Mac Pro desktop rocks-my-socks off in editing HD video. It handles HD like a champ!

Photos: “Downtown KC Air Show - 2009″

2009-08-27T03:38:45Z

The annual downtown Kansas City Air Show was this weekend- and I was eager to photowalk the event and see what I could capture. Each time I get my camera out- I sometimes find myself in situations that remind me of a quote Mike McMullen shared with me (in a video blog) last year. While it’s not the most elegant quote, it’s completely on-point and accurate. He shares:

“Sometimes that perfect composition slaps you up side the head- and wow, I’m so lucky I’m here- all I can do is screw it up.”

As I’m learning and trying to improve more and more with my own photography (as a hobby), I know first hand what he means. There are those times when you find yourself staring at the perfect photo- it’s almost yelling “HEY YOU, this is the shot right here!” It’s up to you to just get it just right and not screw it up.

All that said- I was pleased and surprised with some of the shots that came out from this year’s air show. Tracking and following speeding airplanes through the sky isn’t something I find myself doing a lot of Enjoy the photos and check out the full flickr slideshow here. Here are some of my personal favorites (below).

The “state” of local blogging in Kansas City.

2009-08-19T22:20:14Z

I wanted to voice some quick thoughts in response to a recent feature ink magazine put together about local blogging here in Kansas City. What you didn’t see published was some of the thoughts from my interview I shared with the ink / KC Star in regards to the “state” of local blogging. Instead, I thought I’d share them here I think we’ve got some strong voices in town, but the best has yet to come. For anyone who follows the local blog scene, it’s interesting to see blogs born, thriving, lingering and dying as the (some creators burn-out in updating their content). Personally, I do as best I can myself to blog timely, relevant and valued content. While it’s not as frequent as other popular blogs in town- I really focus on the quality of my outputs (if you’re looking for daily updates, follow me on Twitter @ramseym).

Furthermore, I still have strong thoughts that bloggers and journalists in town can co-exists. This is still a clear area that needs to be explored. I’ve blogged about this before in the past.

In my mind, blogging (about) Kansas City topics is still very much in the adolescence stage. There are certainly are a fair share blogs that have a good following and are doing it well, but I just have much higher expectations in what it could and should be. Especially vis-à-vis to traditional media influencers in town (e.g. KC Star, Pitch, TV stations, radio). Furthermore, anyone who’s attempted to aggregate a 1-stop-destination for local blogs have had little success (TKC , Fox and others have tried). Regardless, one thing is for sure- KC isn’t archaic by any means in regards to its presence online.

So what do you think- am I completely wrong about this? What are your thoughts?
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Video Blog: “Behind the scenes” @Kansas City Star photo shoot.

2009-08-19T20:13:00Z

Recently I was interviewed by ink magazine about my Event Blogging that I cover here in Kansas City. One aspect feature piece for the magazine / website was photos of each Kansas City blogger- and I brought my camera to use for my shoot and I figured while I was there, why not record a “behind the scenes” take on what it was like to be there. I’ll be the first to admit- I don’t think this vblog is one of my more compelling ones, but it does give you an candid look at my experience. I had fun doing it (side note: its hard to imagine how models gripe about posing for photos, maybe I’m missing something!?!).

You can check out the full article online here. And if you pickup a copy of the Kansas City Star today, look in the top left and you’ll see my photo on the front page Watch the vblog here.

Photos: “The company summer picnic.”

2009-08-17T04:43:08Z

This past weekend, the company I work for, held a summer picnic. Of course, I figured what a great opportunity to grab my Canon 40D camera and get practice snapping photos. What I’ve realized in the past few months, when it comes to my photography style- I continue to be captivated with people portraits. Perhaps it’s the chase I’m obsessed with- the challenge of getting that split-second facial expression, all while framing up the right shot. I still like taking architecture and landscape photos- but nothing beats the story that’s told with a great “in the moment” portrait shot.

It was fun sneaking some photo time with of my co-workers and their families to see what I could come up with. My favorites from the set are the ones I took of Olivia. She has such a vibrant personality that comes through in every photo I took of her. Check out my favs below and/or watch the full flickr slideshow.

Facebook sucks if your friends suck.

2009-08-04T05:21:05Z

A friend at work passed along an article that made me so furious- I almost couldn’t believe it was allowed to be published. The article was on MSN, entitled “Is Facebook Past Its Prime?” Now before, I go on- this blog post isn’t intended to be a rant on how horrific the article is. Instead, I want to rationalize some concepts I believe are easy to forget.

The article, makes some very definitive points that seem to be written as facts and NOT as opinion:

“This may mark the beginning of the end of Facebook’s enormous popularity.”
“After that 25 things note, there’s not much left to say.”
“People who actually have lives don’t use Facebook.”

Wrong, wrong and wrong. I couldn’t disagree more with each of these points. The author of this article (Hillary Rhodes) is failing to recognize a broader construct. Great technology takes different forms and has different life cycles of use for any given person. Just because Hillary (the author) has found herself finding Facebook less relevant- doesn’t mean the masses out there are graduating from it (after all, 250 million still use it frequently). I’ve always said, the value of Facebook and Twitter is dependent upon the people you follow (or are friends with). If you follow or are friends with people that suck- your experience with either of these websites will suck. It’s as simple as that. The websites themselves are dependent upon sharing and creating content- so it’s a direct correlation. YOUR participation and your friends participation is what makes it valuable. If you logged into either Twitter or Facebook and no one updated or did anything- there wouldn’t be anything there. It would just be a blank page. Your friends in these networks defines what you experience with Twitter or Facebook.

Facebook is a networking tool. It’s a tool that connects real people. Twitter is a tool that also connects real people. Both of these tools can be worthless if you aren’t able to augment existing relationships or create real interactions with people of like interests. Real interactions with real people who contribute in these networks is the real value in using Facebook or Twitter.

That said, in my opinion, it’s important to understand two things when it comes to the usage of social media:

1.) People’s experience with social media tools is unique to each individual.
There are so many variables that contribute to how your experience using social media tools (e.g. Facebook and Twitter) will play out. For example, things like; are you an influencer already?, does your social network already exist in the network, do you frequently update, do you interact or just sit and troll on the website, are your expectations to use the network for business or personal expectations- or mixed. These factors all contribute to your experience with any given social media tool.

2.) Understanding HOW to get the most out of a social media tools and WHEN to use it is also important.
Similar to knowing the right time to send a text message vs. picking up the phone to call someone is important- the same is true for social media tools.

Facebook and Twitter are both great social media technologies that facilitate social networking. Neither of these communication tools are going to be extinct anytime soon. Bottom line, understand your experience with Facebook and Twitter are unique to you and it is not going to be the same for everyone else. Something Hillary Rhodes should of thought about before concluding that the “end” Facebook is near. It might be for her- but not for the other 249,999,999 of us.
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Photos: 1 Saturday, 5 photos.

2009-08-17T04:31:05Z

I wanted to share 4 of my favorite photos from 1 Saturday here in Kansas City (last weekend). It was one fun-filled day of planned spontaneity! I always have fun practicing my photog skills with my friends (those who are willing) You can watch the full flickr slideshow here.

Video Blog: “The David Beckham Show”

2009-08-09T21:44:09Z

I had the chance to attend the MLS soccer game between the KC Wizards and the LA Galaxy here in KC and I video blogged my experience. Disclaimer: I want to make it a point to tell you the Wizards offered me free press access to the event. I decided to put together a vblog on my own and was not paid to do this.

So you know- I really never “stage” or script any of my video blogs. For event blogging, my goal is to just encapsulate a real perspective from my vantage point. That said, I had a great time taking in the whole experience. And this wasn’t just any normal game- this was the game of the year. David Beckham played in the game.

There were so many mixed reactions to Beckham’s appearance- which I found surprising. Everyone I talked to was on 1 of 2 sides. You either really really hated Beckham or you absolutely loved him. Not many people were in the middle of the road. Regardless, there certainly was no shortage of anyone giving their opinion on how they felt.

During the game, there was an incident between Beckham and a fan that I managed to capture completely on film. You’ll have to watch the video blog to hear the entire story from the hecklers themselves- I managed to grab an interview after the bitter exchange happened.

One thing I will note, that is interesting- CNN and a other news sources are reporting this today with the facts not quite right. My video blog illustrates that the person who insulted Beckham’s wife was NOT the person who shook his hand. I mention this because typically bloggers get criticized for not fact checking or telling the complete truth- and this is an small example of the blogger getting it right and NOT the major network (interesting to point out, not that it changes the world).

Check out my video blog on YouTube and also the photos I took with my camera.

UPDATE: this video blog is being linked all over the internez! Over 10k views in under 24 hours! So cool, a first for me as a indie video blogger. And now it’s over 100k total views!
» Washington Post
» Yahoo Sports
» Deadspin

As always, drop me an email or make a comment with your thoughts, good or bad- your feedback helps me get better! If you’re searching for more, check out a friend of mine’s video blog as well (Whitney), she captured some footage and her experience.
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Photos: “David Beckham in Kansas City”

2009-07-28T05:18:29Z

My independent video blogging is now getting me access pri-mo events!?! Whaaaat? This weekend I was offered the opportunity to have press access to attend the KC Wizards MLS soccer game here in Kansas City. And this wasn’t just any normal game- this was the game of the year. David Beckham played in the game.

[record scratch sound] One quick throw-back to my younger life; growing up soccer was my favorite sport. It was the sport I played all the way through high school. I also played competitive club ball. In fact, I had aspirations of playing in college [cue pity story]. My senior year, I tore my ACL in my knee- which prevented me from playing in college. Long story long, you can see why I’m a huge fan of the sport. So, getting an invite to this was awesome!

Fast-forward to the game this weekend, my press access let me walk-in with my camera to snap some pictures. You can imagine, the ‘real press’ there had cameras worth more than my life. I sorta felt like the little kid who showed up to a pickup baseball game who’s glove was from the toy store (enough about my camera envy) Take a look at the pics I snapped while I was there. While they might not be as good as ESPN’s, they should give you the idea of what it was like to be there.

You can view the flickr slideshow of photos here.

Here are the tools + websites I like to use.

2009-09-23T03:35:38Z

Each day I find myself with at least one message in my inbox asking “What tool do you use?” or “What website do you use for X”. So I think this blog post will give you an idea of what I use / equipment I’m digging right now. My plan is that this will be a “living” blog post that I’ll update as things shift (which likely will be quite often). It’ll also make it easy to point people to when they ask questions

Tools and Websites I Like:

YouTube - main channel in which I post all my video blogs
Vimeo - secondary place in which I redundantly try to post most of my video blogs
Wordpress.org - blog software I use
Gmail - my primary personal email
TweetDeck - the app I use at home for Twitter, I use the crap out of the filters functions
HootSuite - the app I use at home for Twitter, I love the filters + future tweet functions
Tweetie - the app I use on my iPhone for Twitter
Flickr - I upload and post all my photos here
Netvibes - this is my preferred RSS reader when I’m at a computer
Google Reader (mobile) - this is what I use on iPhone to read RSS
Delicious - I bookmark everything I find interesting here
VerticalResponse - my email marketing software
Adobe Elements - my photo imaging editor
Adobe Premier - my preferred video editing software (this may change very soon)
Final Cut Express - my video editing software I use for my video blogs
GelaSkins - I’ve got one of these on all my stuff. I’m really into the art community @website
Grooveshark - the ‘google’ of music searching. I use this to quickly preview songs.
FlipMinoHD - this is the camera I use to shoot my video blogs
Canon 40D - this is the DSLR camera I use to take my photos
Canon SD750 - this is the point and shoot I use
Mac Pro (desktop tower) - this is my computer I use at home

What’s on my screen during any given work day:

I open and close many websites and a few applications in the given day. Here are typically what you would find open if you were to walk up to my computer during the day. You might be surprised to find that I don’t keep either a Twitter, Facebook, or Gmail open at all times it’s true, I prefer to “dive-in and out” during the day when appropriate.

Outlook - work email
iTunes - music player
Textpad - I work in this religiously, it’s like my workspace to stub out anything (e.g. short-term lists, copy-paste storage, virtual post-it)
Firefox - my preferred web browser software

Some of you will find this blog post interesting- some of you will not. I’m hoping for some it will turn your head to maybe something you’re not familiar with to check out. If you’re looking for more- check out the inkkc.com “My Essentials” feature I was featured in earlier this year.
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Photos: 4th of July @the Lake

2009-07-09T03:31:13Z

This past weekend I made the annual trip down to my friend Matt’s family Lake of the Ozarks house for the 4th of July. The weather wasn’t so great, but it still was a fun and relaxing trip. I snapped a few photos I wanted to share and posted them to flickr (view the entire slideshow here).

“Ambient Intimacy” a term you need to know.

2009-06-30T05:34:26Z

The term ambient intimacy is more than just a definition- it’s a construct that helps make sense of why the usage of social media appeals to the masses. Many often struggle in rationalizing SM’s value in corporate board rooms and company meetings everyday- or even when you’re talking to your friends. And it’s common for people to throw questions at you like; I don’t get why people use Twitter? Do people even read your blog? Isn’t social media just a bunch of narcissistic noise? Why do people use that website?

First, let me share a quick story about a friend, Sam Meers. Until recently- Sam and I had never met. However, we shared a mutual friend. She recommended I Google him and consider getting to know him better. Sam and myself share common interests in that we both blog and work in the agency world. Beyond that, we’re really quite different people. I started reading his blog and instantly was hooked at his ability to be such a graceful story teller with his words. I posted comments and my thoughts on blogs and we became acquaintances that was limited to just interactions online. Now- fast forward- the company I work for, engaged Sam to provide us consulting in regards to our marketing and brand. It was only then that I met him face-to-face for the first time. Yet, the first thing we both agreed was that the first question he asked, “What have you been up to?” was really irrelevant because of the interactions we share online. We already knew the answer to that question yet were only meeting for the first time! Our conversation was greatly augmented because we are able to jump right into relevant conversation we’re interested in.

Ambient intimacy is about being able to keep in touch with people with a level of regularity and intimacy that you wouldn’t usually have access to, because time and space conspire to make it impossible. In the case of Sam and myself, it is a perfect illustration about how social media facilitates this term, ambient intimacy.

Facebook helps me see what my friends are thinking, doing, projects they’re working on and what they did this weekend.

Twitter tells me what websites to check out and the opinions people have about news and current events.

Flickr lets me see the latest family photos or pics from a recent trip. And it also shows me their latest haircut.

Friendfeed tells me their activity stream of my friends online, what they’re looking at, what they’re reading and videos they’ve favorited on YouTube.

So who cares? @leisa summarizes it well; It helps us get to know people who would otherwise be just acquaintances. It makes us feel closer to people we care for but in whose lives we’re not able to participate as closely as we’d like. Knowing these details creates intimacy. (It also saves a lot of time when you finally do get to catchup with these people in real life!) It’s not so much about meaning, it’s just about being in touch.

When people have asked the ways social media has helped me- I always make it a point to mention that social media has the power to greatly augment (not destroy or lessen) existing relationships you have with friends, family and businesses (corporate use) you have in your life. Like anything, you must understand how to integrate it appropriately- but once you do, it’s powerful stuff.

Take my mom for instance, she’s likely my biggest fan of my flickr feed and video blogs (note: she lives in a different state). It is almost down to a routine for me to get a phone call from her once I upload something. Furthermore, I myself regularly reference in conversation with her, “Did you see that photo from my trip? [insert story here]“. She enjoys the ways my usage of social media provides intimacy even though the physical distance exists between us.

So if you think that “my mom” isn’t good enough justification- social media works wonders for businesses too. Take a look at the recent revenue Dell is making by using Twitter or the successful brand ambassadors Cirque Du Soleil has.

In my opinion, the term “Ambient Intimacy”, is an important psychological and communication construct that provides the WHY in how the technologies can enhance peoples behavior for the better.
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Video Blog: “the ButtKicker install”

2009-06-29T03:29:18Z

I had a chance to test out the “ButtKicker” home theater kit- it’s a motor that shakes your couch while you watch movies. Overall, it’s a great product- but I think it’s really geared for hardcore movie goers or video gamers. Disclaimer: I want to make a point to tell you that the company that makes this product sent this to me for free after seeing my AMC Mainstreet video blog. This company outfits AMC theaters with ButtKickers and this product is the same, but designed for your house. I decided to put together a vblog review on my own and was not paid to do this.

What is the ButtKicker? It’s a device that shakes your couch using the low frequencies that your sub woofer outputs. Basically, if your sub woofer is playing- the ButtKicker will vibrate to shake your couch so you can ‘feel’ the bass in addition to hearing it. After testing movies out with my DVD player, I will say the ButtKicker makes already intense action scenes even better and movie soundtracks are much more entertaining. You can literally feel the gun shots fired in a movie and the explosions.

The setup of the ButtKicker was painless (which I found shocking, I thought it would require assembly of elevendy billion parts). It took me 20-minutes to put together the entire kit. You can see in my photos, the ButtKicker goes under one leg of your couch, but the instructions also show you can mount it inside your couch if you’d like. Watch my video blog for more visuals /commentary on how you connect it to your stereo system- it’s really easy.

I really like that when you have the volume down, the ButtKicker still works- which is awesome for those late night movies you don’t want to wake anyone up, but still want the full movie experience. It comes with a wireless remote which has adjustable “intensity” so you can increase or decrease the levels. I couldn’t really tell a difference when I increased /decreased the levels, but I will say this thing is so powerful that it does shake your entire couch without making any noise (you can’t hear any motor or fans coming from the ButtKicker).

Keep in mind, this device isn’t always on shaking your couch. If you’re watching the movie “You’ve Got Mail”, you’re likely not going to feel the ButtKicker at all It’s only the ‘action scenes’ that have loud low explosions or noises will you even feel the ButtKicker.

For anyone who thinks they have every component of their home theater setup- this IS the finishing touch. The bottom line is this is for the hardcore- techy, video gamer or movie goer this is a must-have. For the average person, likely not for you unless you’ve got money to spare. If you want to buy a kit- you can on their website (it retails for $399, but there’s a coupon that I will post later (or email me) that gives you a discount to decrease the cost to $289).
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